It is widely known by those skilled in the art that patients who suffer from paralysis due to a dysfunction of the brain have little or no control over their body muscles. As a result, it is impossible for such patients to maintain proper posture. An upright posture is extremely important in any therapeutic treatment to reduce the problems derived from this condition.
Due to the complete lack of control which is inherent to this condition, the therapy for a recovering patient who suffers from paralysis is hampered from the onset by the improper posture acquired by the patient.
A previously proposed solution to this problem was the use of a chair provided with a plurality of safety belts, particularly designed to fasten the legs, arms and body of the patient in order to support and sustain the body in a more suitable position for the physiotherapeutic exercises used to help the patient improve control over his body.
The foregoing chair solved, at least partially, the problem of maintaining proper posture. However, the chair did not provide suitable support for the head, which drooped forward or sideways due to the patient's lack of control over the muscles in his neck.
Several research studies performed with a number of patients showed that this drooping of the patient's head produced an imbalance in the control center of the nervous system of the patient. This imbalance was extremely detrimental to the recovery of the patient since the imbalance and the drooping added significantly to the problem.
A second previously proposed solution to this particular problem was the use of a device for holding and supporting the patient's head to prevent it from drooping through the use of belts and straps to firmly fasten the head in an upright position.
Although this solution was a significant advancement when compared to the chair of the prior art, it was not good enough to allow the patient to satisfactorily accomplish the desired purposes.
In fact, the foregoing research studies showed, startlingly clearly, that the recovery of a patient improved considerably when the head of the patient was maintained in a movable upright position. This position is similar to the normal posture of those who do not suffer from this condition, wherein the head is maintained in an upright position from which it can move freely.